GEN Agricultural irrigation piping stacked on farm_2924745

Chinese company Yuanda has invested US$180m in Israeli agricultural technology company AutoAgronom to establish a factory in China to manufacture intelligent drip irrigation systems.

Curtain wall manufacturer Yuanda purchased a 54 per cent stake in AutoAgronom for US$20m last year as part of its expansion into the high-tech agriculture sector.

'Our cooperation is like a marriage. We offer technology and Yuanda focuses on marketing,' Nissim Daniely, general manager of AutoAgronom told China Daily. 'The movement to new technology is huge. Every year, the area of drip irrigation system farming in China increases about 20 per cent, which is more than all in Israel andEurope together. It is a huge market in China.”

AutoAgronom was established in Israel in 1988, with its irrigation and fertilisation systems used across more than 70 different crops in 13 countries.